10 In whose hands are evil designs, and whose right hands take money for judging falsely.
And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging.
You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false.
In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord. See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you.
And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death.
Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage. For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.
You have seen it; for your eyes are on sorrow and grief, to take it into your hand: the poor man puts his faith in you; you have been the helper of the child who has no father.
He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil;
For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life.
Send destruction on them, O Lord, make a division of tongues among them: for I have seen fighting and violent acts in the town. By day and night they go round the town, on the walls; trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it. Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets.
He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which is not good; he is not a hater of evil.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 26
Commentary on Psalms 26 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 26
Holy David is in this psalm putting himself upon a solemn trial, not by God and his country, but by God and his own conscience, to both which he appeals touching his integrity (v. 1, 2), for the proof of which he alleges,
In singing this psalm we must teach and admonish ourselves, and one another, what we must be and do that we may have the favour of God, and comfort in our own consciences, and comfort ourselves with it, as David does, if we can say that in any measure we have, through grace, answered to these characters. The learned Amyraldus, in his argument of his psalm, suggests that David is here, by the spirit of prophecy, carried out to speak of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence, was fully and eminently true, and of him only, and to him we may apply it in singing this psalm. "We are complete in him.'
A psalm of David.
Psa 26:1-5
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he was persecuted by Saul and his party, who, to give some colour to their unjust rage, represented him as a very bad man, and falsely accused him of many high crimes and misdemeanors, dressed him up in the skins of wild beasts that they might bait him. Innocency itself is no fence to the name, though it is to the bosom, against the darts of calumny. Herein he was a type of Christ, who was made a reproach of men, and foretold to his followers that they also must have all manner of evil said against them falsely. Now see what David does in this case.
Psa 26:6-12
In these verses,